***NOTE: Certain character options, specifically Force Techniques and Force Secrets state "once selected, they may not be changed." No such stipulation is made regarding other presumed permanent character options like Talents, Feats, Skills, and Force Powers. I cannot find a section of the rules that addresses changing these options, so I have not done so. However, if available as an option I would have replaced Vader's Dual Weapon Mastery feat with Skill Focus (Use the Force) to off-set the penalties from his cybernetic limbs...and probably replace Rapid Strike with Power Attack. With such abilities (especially his Dark Rage mastery), Vader becomes an even more frightening combatant than he already is: a lumbering behemoth of rage and angst. Coupled with some GM fiat with regard to ability scores (the core rulebook's listing has the wheezy, middle-aged cripple with a Constitution of 17!) and Vader would be a real monster...however, I think this guy is plenty tough (while still defeatable by a Luke Skywalker playing out of his mind). Interestingly, both WotC and myself start His Royal Badness with a Destiny of 3 by Episode IV. That's the problem with fulfilling a Destiny...use lose all the points you've accumulated.***

First off, I can't help but notice how long these stat blocks are. Love d20.

Second, I never thought of Vader as changing much between 4 and 6. The story really didn't center on him, and he spent all his time organizing and strangling underlings (no XP in 3E for them because they're too low level).

But the changes from 1-2 were enormous (he wasn't a stupid-ass irritating kid for one thing). And from 3-4 (he got the armor and cyber, and stopped being a whinging teenage punk).

I'd actually want him to look more like this (at the start of the given episode):

Ep. Vader Luke1 1 X2 7 X3 8 X4 14 15 14 56 14 9

Of course, we must assume that the DM gave full XP for every contractor and droid on the Death Star when it blew up in 4. And that the XP was divided evenly among all the crews of the ships and the ground forces involved in the battle, so Luke got basically nothing.

Note that Luke was pretty much losing the entire time against Vader. He won by appealing to him (Bluff?) and it was Vader who did the Grapple + Throw on the Emperor.

@ Badelaire: Yeah, I'm NOT copying the character stats from the book...I wouldn't want to encourage anyone to use those!

@ D30: You big nerd!

(says the guy writing up Star Wars stats)

Check out today's new post about XP/advancement in the game. I agree that there's not much change between 4 and 6 for Vader, but I am a vet of the WEG sourcebooks and I agreed with them that Vader had SOME changes between the latter episodes. He's a bit more badass, IMO.